


Do You Want to Build a Sandcastle With Me?

by sitswithcats



Category: Bandom, Fall Out Boy, My Chemical Romance
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Best Friends, Ferard, Friends to Lovers, Genderfluid Gerard Way, M/M, Ryden, petekey
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-17
Updated: 2015-03-17
Packaged: 2018-03-18 06:07:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 16,178
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3558938
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sitswithcats/pseuds/sitswithcats
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Pete and Mikey meet at a sandbox when they're five and become instant best friends, sticking together all throughout Elementary, Middle, and High school, with all the bumps that come along the way</p>
            </blockquote>





	Do You Want to Build a Sandcastle With Me?

**Author's Note:**

> okay first fic ever let me know what you think!
> 
> Edit: I wrote this fic back in 2015 almost a full two years ago, I was looking back and noticed a lot wrong grammatically and hopefully fixed it all, please let me know what you think of the fic and if I have missed anything else  
> Edited on February 8th, 2017

“Gee! Gee! I want to play in the sandbox.”

“Okay, Mikey.” Gerard looks down at his younger brother. “I’ll walk you there but I want to go play with Frankie and Ray after.”

“You can leave me there!” Mikey replies, “I'm a big boy now. Four years old and I'm starting kindergarten in three weeks.” Mikey explained to his brother holding up five fingers.

“I don't know…” Gerard says, not sure if leaving his little brother alone is a good idea.

“Please, Gee?” Mikey whines.

“Okay.” His brother gives in, sighing.

“Yes!”

“But I'll be on the playground right there,” he points at the jungle gym where his two friends are hanging upside down on the monkey bars. “if you need me got it?”

Mikey nods frantically, “got it, love you!” He says before running off to the sandbox.

“Love you too!” Gerard shouts back before turning around and running to the jungle gym in time to see Frank fall head first from the bars into the pebbles below.

 

“Hello, can I build a sandcastle with you?” Mikey pushes his glasses up on his nose and looks up to see another boy standing above him.

He moves a bit so there’s more room in the box, looking back down in his lap. “Sure I guess.” He mumbles, not used to anyone showing interest in playing with him.

The boys smiles a wide, toothy grin. “Great!” He says loudly before sitting down next to Mikey. “I’m Peter Wentz, but you can call me Pete. What’s your name?”

“Mikey Way.” He replies softly.

“That's a cool name, Mikeyway. We should build a really big sandcastle for both of us to fit in.” Pete says, pulling in all the sand he can close to him.

“I was just gonna build a small one for Blu.”

“Who's Blu?” Pete looks over at Mikey.

“My stuffed bunny.” He reaches behind himself and pulls out a small stuffed blue rabbit.

Pete smiles, seeing the stuffed animal. “That's cool can I hold him?” He asks, holding his hands out.

“Actually Blu’s a girl,” Mikey says, handing the stuffed rabbit over.

Pete holds the stuffed animal as carefully as he would hold a baby, “She's very cute but we should probably start building the castle now.” Pete sets Blu down between them and scoops some sand into a bucket.

Mikey looks over at Pete, watching him closely as he build the castle. Everyone that has met Mikey thought that Blu was weird, but Pete doesn't think anything of the stuffed rabbit, other than that she's cute. He’s even helping him make a castle for her.

“You okay Mikeyway?”

Pete’s voice breaks through Mikey’s train of thought. He blushes a bit, realizing he’s been staring at Pete for a while. He quickly looks back down and grabs a handful of sand.

“Sorry.” he mumbles, watching the sand fall between his fingers.

Pete just grins at him, “that's okay. Come on, I want to finish this.”

Mikey smiles softly to himself and begins to work on the moat around the edge, listening to Pete babble on about how this is going to be the best castle ever.

“Hey, Mikey, it's time to go home- who's this?” Gerard, and his friend Ray, walk up to the sandbox where Pete and Mikey are still playing.

“I’m Pete!” Pete stands up and speaks before Mikey can even open his mouth. “Who are you guys?”

“I'm Gerard, Mikey’s older brother.” Gerard says, eyeing Pete.

“And I'm Ray, Gerards friend.” Ray pipes up from behind Gerard. “It’s nice that Mikey made a friend, but we have to go back home now.”

“That's okay, I should go back to my dad anyway.” Pete helps Mikey up to his feet and gives him a tight hug.

Mikey stands there, stiff, not sure what to do with Pete’s arms around him, he’s never hugged anybody but his parents and brother before.

“You’re supposed to hug back silly.” Pete says, quietly, so only Mikey will hear.

Mikey brings his arms up and wraps them around the other boy. Pete grins wide and squeezes a little tighter for just a second before letting go. He runs off to his dad, shouting goodbyes to the three of them.

Mikey glances over at his brother, he’s talking to Ray, not paying any attention to his brother. Mikey bends down and grabs Blu, dusting her off before standing up straight.

“Gee, I’m ready to go now.” He says, getting his brothers attention.

“Cool, let's go.” Gerard wraps his arm around his little brother and makes their way home, Ray walking with them.

 

\---

 

“Do you have to leave me mom?” Mikey looks up at his mom, tears pooled into his eyes.

It’s the first day of kindergarten, Mikey has his backpack packed, complete with a bagged lunch and Blu hidden at the bottom. Mikey also really, really, really, really doesn’'t want to be at place where he knows no one. Being the shy kid who doesn’t know how to make friends or know anyone in a new school isn’t a good mix.

“Yes I do, kiddo.” Mrs. Way bends down to get at is eye level, adjusting Mikey’s glasses on the bridge of his nose. “You'll be fine and-”

“Mikeyway!” Mrs. Way is cut off by a loud shout coming from Pete.

He runs over and tackles Mikey into a hug, holding tight. “You are in my class!” He says happily.

“See Mikey, you already have a friend.” Mrs. Way kisses her son’s head “Gerard will come get you when school is over. I love you and at least try to have fun.”

Mikey nods and separates himself from Pete to give his mother a tight hug before letting her leave, nearly crying as he watches her go.

“Hey, Mikey, are you okay?” Pete asks, looking over at his friend.

Mikey just sniffles and looks down not speaking. Pete doesn’t say anything else, he grabs Mikey's hand and squeezes.

 

Pete and Mikey find out from their teacher that they ride the same bus home. They wait at the door of their classroom, all packed up, waiting for Gerard to walk them to the bus so they don’t get lost. Mikey holds Blu in his hand, playing with the stuffed rabbit as they stand there.

“Hey, Mikey?” Pete breaks the comfortable silence between the two friends.

“Yeah, Pete?” He looks over at Pete.

“How old is Gerard?”

“Gee? He's eight years old and in the second grade. Why?”

“No reason, just wondering...”

“Are you okay, Pete?”  Mikey asks, concerned with his usually loud friend being so uncharacteristically quiet.

“Is it fun having a brother?”

“Huh? I guess so, it's kind of annoying sometimes when he thinks I'm too little to hang out with him and his friends but usually it's fun. Why?”

“Well… I don't know. My mom told me I'm not ever gonna get a little brother or sister and she won't tell me why, she just said she doesn't want anymore kids, and that's okay I just want to know I'm not missing out on anything fun or something…” Pete trails off at the end.

“Well, if you're friends with me then Gerard can be your big brother too.” Mikey takes Pete’s hand.

Pete squeezes back, gently “Thanks, Mikey.”

 

\---

 

The summer between kindergarten and first grade went by in a blur of play dates, trips to the park, and ice cream truck visits. Pete and Mikey continued to grow closer throughout school year, never being seen apart, and over the summer they saw each other almost everyday.

“Mikey, I got my teacher for next year!” Pete runs over to his best friend and looks over the paper that says what class he’ s in for the upcoming school year.

He frowns, “Oh no,” he says quietly, seeing they have different teachers this year, “we don’t have the same teacher, Mikey.”

“What do you mean? We aren’t in the same class anymore?” Mikey says, clearly upset.

“It says on my sheet that I have Mrs. Gentz and you have Mr. Clark. I’m sorry Mikes.” Pete says sadly. “We can still see each other at lunch and recess.”

“It’s not the same…” Mikey mumbles, sitting down on the floor. “I just want to have my friend in class with me.”

“I’m not your only friend!” Pete tells him, sitting down next to him, their knees touching. “Maybe you’ll have Ryan or William in Mr. Clark’s class with you.”

Pete begins to list more of the kids they met last year in their class together. He names around five before Mikey interrupts him.

“I guess it’s okay if we can see each other at recess. You’re my best friend and I don’t want being in different classes to change that, but you have to pinky promise me it won’t change.” Mikey holds out his pinky to Pete.

The other boy grins and links their pinkies together. “I promise, we are  going to be best friends for ever, I can’t just stop playing with you now.”

Pete rambles on about everything they’re going to together even if they’re in different classes. Mikey watches him with a soft smile. He unlinks their pinkies and laces their fingers together.

“Best friends forever.” Mikey whispers to himself.

 

\---

 

The end of summer raced by, Mikey accepted that Pete isn’t in his class anymore, though it did take a while. It’s now the first day of school, the two boys are sitting close together on the same seat, holding each other’s hands.

“Do you think Mrs.Gentz will be nice?” Mikey asks.

“I hope so, Ray said he had her when he was in first grade and said that she was alright if you’re not loud and listen, which could be a problem for me.”

That part was true Pete has bad anger issues. In kindergarten he used to get into a lot of arguments with the other kids. Mikey would be the only one would could calm him down. He’d grab Pete’s hand to remind him that everything was alright, and fighting wasn’t the answer, but if that didn’t work Mikey would have to jump in between Pete and the other kid he was arguing with.

“How ‘bout you? What do you think Mr. Clark is going to be like?”

“Well he’s new, so Gee and his friends don’t know anything about him. I’m just hoping he’s nice and doesn’t call on me when I don’t know the answer.” Mikey replies just as the bus pulls up into the school.

“Hey guys, get up we’re here.” Gerard turns around to tell them, he’s sitting in the seat in front of them, next to Frank.

Gerard pushes Frank lightly to get him to move. Frank steps out into the aisle and pushes Gerard back when he tries to get up, giggling when he falls back down.

Mikey and Pete continue to talk as Gerard and Frank walk them to the first grade hallway. About halfway through the trip Mikey has the realization that he isn’t going to see Pete until lunch. In his brief panic about being left alone Pete notices his expression and grabs his hand, and squeezes it gently, all while speaking. To an outsider it would seem like two close friends talking, nothing wrong, but to Mikey that gesture meant the world.

“Okay, we’re here” Gerard interrupts Pete’s rambling to give them instructions. “Hang up your backpacks right there, on the hooks, and your classes are next to each other so that’s good.”

“Thanks Gee.” Pete says, smiling up at him.

Over the summer, when Pete and Mikey were basically inseparable, he became a lot closer to Gerard too, calling him the nickname Mikey often used.

“Thanks Gerard, you can go to class now. I love you.” Mikey looks up at him.

“Love you too, Mikey.” He ruffles Mikey’s hair. “ I’ll come back at the end of the day to walk to the bus with you. Come on Frank we gotta go.” Gerard slings his arm around Frank’s shoulders, walking to the third grade hallway.

 

\---

 

“Good morning, class, I’m Mr. Clark.”

“Good morning, Mr. Clark.” A chorus of children's voices greets the teacher.

Mikey sits at a table with a nice girl named Alice and a loud boy named Brendon Urie. Brendon’s a new student, a loud talkative boy, hyperactive but sweet. He quickly forced Mikey into a friendship with him. Mikey didn’t think it was so bad, he reminds him of Pete.

Being a new student at their school, Brendon hasn’t made any friends other than Mikey yet.

“Is it okay if I sit with you and your friend, Pete, at lunch?” Brendon asks a bit nervous.

“Of course you can, he might bring another few friends with him so it probably won't just be just us, he makes friends a lot quicker than I can.”

 

Sure enough Pete had made more friends than Mikey did. When the two of them walked into the cafeteria they saw Pete sitting at the table with three other boys. Pete has his legs up on the seat next to him, saving it for Mikey. Pete turns his head to look around the room, as soon as he sees Mikey his face lights up.

“Mikeyway, over here!” He shouts, waving his hands dramatically in the air to bring attention to himself.

“Hey, Pete!” Mikey yells back.

He gestures for Brendon to follow him back to the table. When they sit down in the empty seats Pete immediately puts his arm around Mikey, pulling him as close as he can.

“Mikey this is Patrick, Andy, and you already know Joe. Guys this is the Mikey I was talking about.” Pete introduces his new friends to Mikey.

“Hello, this is Brendon, he’s new here.”

Mikey moves to the side to show the boy sitting next to him, only Brendon some how managed to shove his entire sandwich into his mouth in one bite.

“Nice!” Joe shouts, clearly impressed, he shoves most of his own sandwich into his mouth.

“I can do it too!” Andy exclaims, following in the other boys pattern.

“So can I!” Pete yells, pulling his arm back from around Mikey’s shoulders and shoving his sandwich into his own mouth.

“Is Pete always like this?” A small voice asks Mikey.

Mikey looks up across the table and sees a small boy with a trucker hat covering his sandy blond hair. He assumes it’s Patrick.

“Yeah, Pete tends to get loud and excited sometimes, it’s not that hard to get used to.” Mikey giggles a bit as he replies.

Patrick gives him a shy smile in response.

 

\---

 

Four years go by and soon enough Pete and Mikey are in the fifth grade, thankfully in the same class this time around. Patrick, Joe, and Andy all stayed close friends with the two boys, Patrick and Pete becoming particularly close, being next door neighbors and all, but not nearly as close as Mikey and Pete. Brendon clinged to Mikey’s side for the first couple days after meeting him, soon after he met two boys named Ryan and Spencer and stuck to their side after that, still staying close with Mikey and the other boys.

The four years together only strengthened Mikey and Pete’s friendship, the two boys were rarely seen apart, and when they were they always knew where the other was.

“Pete, I’m gonna go talk to ‘Trick about that project we’re doing together. I’ll be back in a bit so we can walk to the bus together.” Mikey tells Pete, throwing his backpack over his shoulder and walking over to Patrick.

“Okay, Mikeyway, I’ll just wait here.” Pete replies, packing up his own backpack as he waits.

“Hey, Wentz!” A loud voice jerks Pete from his own thoughts.

He looks up to see Bob Bryar, the school’s well known fifth grade bully, walking towards him. Bob never liked how close Pete and Mikey were, he didn’t think it was normal for two friends to hold hand, hug, or sit on each others laps during lunch if there isn’t enough room at the table. He thought it was weird, and not supposed to be like that, he made his opinions known to the two boys, not letting it go for the four years they’ve been in school together.

Never one to back down from a confrontation, Pete stands up straight and looks Bob in the eye.

“What do you want, Bob?”

“You know what, you and Mikey are really freaking weird together.” He brings up the same argument he always does.

“What’s so weird about it?” Pete glares at him, already getting angry, clenching his fists at his side.

“It’s not normal to hug your friends and be all weird like that with them. It’s not right.” Bob tries to explain why he’s so bothered by the two boys.

“Hey, Pete, Gee and Frank are here from the middle school, they said we’re going to the park instead of taking the bus home.” Mikey walks up behind Pete, not noticing the argument that the other boys are having.

He looks over Pete’s face and see’s his tight jaw, he looks down to see Pete’s hand clenched at his side and frowns. He grabs the fist in his own hand and pulls his fingers out, lacing them with his own, hoping it’ll calm Pete down.

“See that! Right there, normal friends don’t hold hands!” Bob nearly screams at them

Before Pete can even open his mouth to retaliate, Mikey snaps at Bob.

“And what would you know about friends?” Mikey yells, attracting the attention of some of their classmates.

Being the shy kid that only talked to Pete or his other few friends, stuttering out nervously when called on in class, the sudden outburst shocked nearly everybody, including his brother and Frank.

“All your ‘friends’ are only there because they’re too scared you’re gonna beat them, they figure being friends with a bully is better than being a victim of bullying! You’re just jealous that me and Pete are best friends while you’re alone, pushing others around because you’re lonely and never going to have a friend that’s half as amazing as Pete is! You’re just gonna be alone for the rest of your life and never have any friendship that’s as close as ours, ever!” Mikey finishes yelling at Bob, breathing heavy, his face red from anger.

He squeezes Pete’s hand tight and pulls him away from the situation, walking to the door where his brother and Frank are standing, both in awe of Mikey standing up for himself and Pete, never expecting him to do it like that.

“Damn, Mikey! That was sick, I didn’t know you had that in you! You totally told that kid off!” Frank grins widely at him, slapping his shoulder playfully, “Likey, holy shit, that was amazing! You have to teach me how to yell so loudly, so I can finally tell all the kids off in my grade.”

Gerard pushes Frank, “Don’t swear in front of them, idiot.” He says, putting his arm around his little brother’s shoulders, walking out of the building with his friends. “That was awesome though, I’m proud of you.”

Mikey blushes a bit, letting Gerard lead him onto the sidewalk. “Thanks, Gee. I just got really mad, he’s been doing it for so long, and not just us, other kids too, I couldn’t take it anymore.”

“Doesn’t matter, dude! You told him off and it was so great!” Pete speaks up, grinning widely, swinging Mikey’s hand as they walk. “Did you see his face? He looked like you punched him right in the nose but you didn’t even lay a finger on him!”

“Yeah, I saw it. Um, isn’t the park the other way?” He looks behind them, a little confused.

“Screw the park, my brother just told his bully to fuck off, we’re going to get ice cream.” Gerard squeezes his hand around Mikey’s shoulder.

“You literally just told me not to swear.” Frank frowns.

“Shut up, Frank.” All three say at the same time, giggling.

 

\---

 

From that day on Pete and Mikey were much more public with how close the two of them are, they didn’t bother to hide it and weren’t afraid who saw them holding hands, something they did much more often now. Walking to the bus stop, the two would hold hands, on the bus they’d sit closer than necessary, on the way to their classroom they would hold hands, sitting in class they pushed their desks together, in the lunchroom their legs would touch, sharing their lunches with each other, on the way home, they would walk close, holding each other’s hand. That’s the way it was, both close as ever, until a new girl came into their class.

Ashlee Simpson had long, flowing hair, perfect eyesight and a massive crush on Pete. She came into their lives quietly and unnoticed, sneaking her way onto projects with the two of them, sitting at their lunch table, trying to be as close to Pete as Mikey was. Soon enough she was clinging onto Pete regardless if Mikey was there or not.

The friday before winter break Pete stands alone, packing up his backpack while Mikey is talking to Brendon and Ryan. He sets Blu at the edge of the desk for Mikey to take when he comes back around.

Ashlee sees Pete alone from across the room and quickly walks over, “hey, Pete, that’s a cute bunny,” she says, twirling her hair in her hand.

Pete smiles, “cute isn’t she, it’s Mikey’s bunny, he’s standing over there, talking to Brendon and Ryan.”

She steps closer to him, saying softly, “I don’t really want to talk about Mikey right now.”

Pete tilts his head, confused. “Okay, what do you want to talk about?”

“I don’t really want to talk at all,” she moves closer, their noses nearly touching.

He opens his mouth to ask what she means, but is cut off by her lips on his. It’s over as soon as it happens, Pete pulling away, stepping back, shocked. He quickly turns his head to look for Mikey. He locks eyes with him for a moment, Mikey’s face unreadable. They stare for a moment before Mikey turns his head and continues his conversation with Ryan, his face blank.

“What, um, Why would you- what?” Pete tries to form a sentence, only to fail and stutter out responses.

She frowns, realizing she was wrong to do that. Pete clearly doesn’t like her back, and Mikey from across the room isn’t showing any emotion.

“I’m sorry,” she apologizes, “I thought that you liked me back. I was wrong, that’s fine, it’s not your fault or anything, and you obviously like..” She trails off at the end, glancing over at Mikey in the corner, now just looking at his feet, obviously not listening to Brendon and Ryan.

“Like who?” Pete manages to ask, still stunned by the whole situation.

“No one.” She says quickly. “It doesn’t matter, I’m sorry, I’ll just go now.” She walks off with her head down, upset that she was wrong.

Pete stands there, not knowing what to do or say to her, he just watches her go. He stands still for a bit longer, lost in his own thought, thinking about what she said about him liking someone else.

“Pete, the bus is here.” Mikey walks up to him, taking Blu off the desk.

He speaks in a monotone voice, his face showing no emotion. Pete frowns at him, but doesn’t bring it up.

For the first time in nearly three months, the two boys walked to the bus and didn’t hold hands.

On the bus ride home Mikey stays quiet, as quiet as he was the first day they met each other. Pete doesn’t think much of it, it isn’t hard to when his mind is swarming thoughts about the kiss, and what she said after. He thinks about why he didn’t feel anything when it happened. Everyone says they feel a spark when they kiss someone, he felt nothing, other than it was a little wet. Ashlee is one of the prettiest girls in their grade, and very nice too, but all Pete could think about is Mikey.

The walk home is as quiet as the bus ride, the two walking much farther apart instead of their usual walks, being hip to hip. Being the first day of break, Pete would normally be yelling about how happy and excited he is to be away from school, talking about all the fun things they’re going to be doing together, instead he’s quiet, both keeping to themselves.

When they arrive at Pete’s house he just mumbles a soft goodbye and walks inside, no hug or sweet nickname, just a barely audible farewell, and a shut door.

They didn’t talk about the kiss.

 

Mikey walks into his house, kicking off his shoes and going straight to his brother’s room in the basement. Gerard’s sitting at the edge of his bed, heavily invested in playing a video game. He hears his brother walk into his room and greets him without taking his eyes off the screen.

“Hey, Mikey. How was school?”

“Hey, um Gee… I think.. Well, something happened and, I think i might…” Mikey trips over his words, not sure how to form exactly what he wants to say.

“Come on, spit it out.”

“I think I might like boys!” Mikey shouts.

Gerard pauses his game and looks up at his brother, processing what he says.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to shout.” He mumbles, looking at his feet, not wanting to look his brother in the eyes.

“Okay, um.. Are you sure? Wait, shit, that came out wrong. That’s fine that you- it’s fine, you’re fine, I just. Hold on.” Gerard stands up, grabbing his phone and dialing Frank’s number.

Mikey slowly walks in and sits on the end of Gerard’s bed, watching his brother. Gerard gives him a small smile to reassure him before Frank answers.

“Hey, Frank! I need you to come over. Yes now. No, now. I don’t care that you have a project, you have the entire break to do it, please I need you here. Now. Please it’s for Mikey. Okay, thanks, I’ll tell you when you get here, just hurry up.” Gerard hangs up, looking back at his brother.

“So Frank is going to come over and stuff.” He says, not sure how to do this on his own.

“Okay..” Mikey says quietly.

“I’m here, now what do you want!” Frank’s voice rings through the house, the two boys hearing it loud and clear in the basement.

“Downstairs!” The brother’s shout at the same time.

“Gerard, I want you to know that I’m only here because you said this was about Mikey.” Frank announces as he walks down the stairs.

Mikey smiles to himself, hearing that Frank cares that much about him makes him feel much better. He hopes that his feelings won’t change when he tells him what’s wrong.

“Do you want to tell him, or should I?” Gerard asks Mikey.

“You say it, please.” He says quietly.

Gerard looks up at Frank and clears his throat, “Mikey thinks, well maybe knows, that he likes boys.”

Frank swallows, looking at Mikey where he’s sitting, staring intensely at his lap.

“Well, fuck, okay, that’s fine, it’s just like, fuck-” Frank starts to say before getting cut off.

“I told you to not swear in front of him, he’s ten, my mom will murder me if he starts swearing.” Gerard cuts him off.

“Sorry, sorry, I just don’t really know what to say here. Why don’t we call Ray, he’s bi, right? It will make a hell of a lot more sense coming from him, and he can do it without swearing.”

“Yeah, okay. Ray would know more. Mikey, you wait down here, I’m gonna go call Ray and get some food, you haven’t eaten since lunch. Come on, Frank.”

“Okay.” Mikey says, still looking down at his feet as the two boys walk up the stairs.

“Mikey,” Gerard says, making his brother look up, “I love you.”

Mikey smiles softly, “Thanks, Gee.”

 

Three sandwiches, two cokes, and one root beer later, Ryan walks down the stairs to the basement to see why his two best friends called him in distress about Mikey. He’s met with the sight of Mikey sitting close to his brother, head resting on his shoulder.

Ray pulls a chair up and sits down in front of them. “So, Mikey, Gerard tells me you think you might like boys.” He starts off, getting straight to the point, not bothering to dance around it.

“Yeah.” Mikey sits up straight.

“Do you think, or do you know?”

He shrugs, “I don’t know, I think I know. I have been noticing boys a lot more and stuff, and like, girls are cute and all, but I don’t really want to do any couple stuff with them, doesn’t seem right for me, I’d rather do that stuff with.. With a boy.” Mikey tries to explain what he’s feeling to the three others.

The boys sit in silence for the next five minutes, Frank, Gerard, and Ray all processing what he said, thinking about it. Mikey shifts in his seat, looking between the three of them, trying to make something of their expressions.

“A-am I broken?” Mikey asks, quietly, feeling as if he’s going to start crying.

Before anyone else can react, Frank jumps over Gerard and tackles Mikey into a tight hug, surprising everyone.

“You’re not broken! It’s okay, you’re fine! You’re great!” He shouts.

The unusual sympathy coming from Frank shocked the two other eighth graders, but when they catch sight of Mikey’s grateful expression, they decide against making fun of him, letting him comfort Mikey instead.

“So it’s fine then? There’s nothing bad about this?” Mikey asks, popping his head out from under Frank.

“Of course not, you just like boys, that’s nothing to be ashamed of, Mikes.” Ray says.

“Thank you,” he smiles, “I have another question, though.”

“Ask it, I’ll answer what I can, but I don’t know everything, I’m still learning most of this for myself.”

“What happens if I like a girl, I mean, I’m only ten, anything can happen right?”

“Yes, anything can happen. You’re still young, so am I, for all I know I might be straight after all, or you might end up pan, and like all genders.”

“All genders, but there’s only two, right?” Gerard speaks up this time.

“Not exactly. It’s like, well, I’m cisgender, so that means I identify with the gender I was assigned at birth. We all are cis actually, well as far as I know, you guys haven’t told me otherwise, but there is also transgender, where you identify as another gender than what you were assigned at birth. Like, for example if Frank decided that they feel more comfortable as a girl then we would use female pronouns for HER and call HER by HER preferred name. There’s also more genders than just boy and girl though, there’s also a-gender where they don’t identify by any gender, they just are, and there’s genderfluid where they identify with both boy and girl and are fluid between them.”

Gerard sits up straight, listening very closely at the topic of gender. The more Ray explains how people can be genderfluid, the more Gerard thinks that he might identify as that.

“Can you talk more about how people can be genderfluid?”

“Yeah, and about pansexuality too, also do you have to be pan to date someone who is trans?” Frank asks, getting off Mikey, sitting between him and Gerard.

“Sure, and no, you don’t have to be pan to date someone who is trans. For example you could be a straight male and date a transgender female. As for being genderfluid, it’s just that they’re fluid between genders, both boy and a girl, sometimes both at once, other times just a boy or just a girl. I am cisgender though, so I don’t really know if this is all correct, you’re better off like, googling it or finding someone who is genderfluid to find out more about it.” Ray answers.

Gerard thanks him quietly, thinking to himself about it.

“As for pansexuality is kind of like bisexuality, but not exactly. Bisexuality is the attraction to same and other genders while pansexual is attracted to all genders, regardless, but that doesn’t mean all pansexuals are whores and will date everyone and anyone, it just means that gender isn’t really a factor when deciding if they like someone.” Ray finishes his explanation, looking to Frank who has a large smile on his face.

“Yeah, okay. I think, I think that might be me.”

Ray smiles, “good, I’m glad I could help.”

Mikey stands up, getting off the bed and hugging Ray tightly, putting his face in Ray’s neck.

“Thank you, so much.” Mikey says, his voice muffled a bit.

“Hey, Mikey.” Gerard says, getting his brothers attention.

Mikey looks up, “Yeah, Gee?” He asks.

“I love you.”

Mikey smiles, but before he can say anything else he’s interrupted by his mother running down the stairs, going straight for her sons.

“I love you too, my babies!” She shouts, pulling Mikey off of Ray’s lap and towards herself and his brother, hugging them both tight, “I love you two so much, and I always will, no matter what!”

After she says that, Mikey, who was trying so hard to keep it together, broke, letting tears fall, pressing his face into his mother’s neck, letting himself be comforted.

“Dona, you gave us away. We should’ve just waited until they decide to tell us on their own.” Her husband walks in, over to his children and joined in, forcing them into a family group hug. It only makes Mikey cry a little harder at the acceptance of his parents.

“Well, as great as this little feelings jam was, and it’s always lovely seeing you Mr. and Mrs. Way, but I know a family moment when I see one, so come on, Ray, let’s go.”

Frank and Ray but stand up and make their way to the stairs, only to be engulfed in the Way family hug.

“You’re not going anywhere until we thank you two properly.” Mrs. Way says, holding them close.

“Trust us, this hug is enough.” Ray smiles.

“Yeah, just knowing that I helped my friends is great, even it if was mostly Ray.”

The two untangle themselves from the hug. “Bye, guys, see you later.” They walk up the stairs and out of the Way house.

“Hey, Mikey.” Gerard says from inside the hug.

“Yeah?” Mikey sniffles.

“We love you.” Gerard, Mr., and Mrs. Way all said in unison.

Mikey didn’t tell them Pete was the reason why this happened.

 

\---

 

For the rest of that year Pete and Mikey’s friendship stayed strong, only with a few differences. They stopped holding hands all together, only doing it when Pete has another outburst of anger, which have been happening less often, and when it does happen, they let go immediately after. When they watch movies together, or play video games, they’re completely separated on opposite ends of the couch, rather than thigh to thigh or cuddled up like they used to be. When they had sleep overs they still slept in the same bed, but rather than cuddling close in the night, they stayed on opposite ends, not coming close to each other.

Gerard came to terms with being genderfluid, going by they/them pronouns. He had the complete support of his parents and friends. Frank announced to the world that he was pansexual by jumping on the table in the middle of a full lunchroom, shouting it to the high heavens through a microphone he stole from a teacher. He was sent down to the office for “disturbing the peace of the lunchroom.” Worth it.

Other than the small changes, Pete and Mikey’s friendship stayed more or less the same. They were still best friends till the end, after all they did pinky promise

Mikey also tried hard to push down his new found crush on Pete, covering it up with anything and everything. The only thing that really worked was when he developed a small crush on Ray over the summer between elementary and middle school, nothing nearly as much as his crush on Pete.

 

\---

 

Five days into the winter break of their sixth grade year, Mikey decided it was finally time to tell Pete about his sexuality. Being a bit scared, Mikey was going to tell him indirectly by telling him he has a crush on Ray.

The two boys were up in Mikey’s room, Gerard was downstairs in their own room with Frank and Ray while their parents were out at the store.

Mikey crosses his legs on the floor, looking at Pete laying on his bed. He shifts, mustering up the confidence to tell him.

“Hey, Pete. I have something to tell you.” He starts, getting his friend’s attention.

Pete sits up on the bed, dangling his feet off the side, looking at his friend on the floor, “yeah, what’s up?”

He takes a deep breath, “So, I think I might have a crush on Ray.”

Pete jumps off the bed. “What? No!”

Mikey glares, instantly getting angry from how defensive he already is with the whole situation. “What do you mean, no?” He shouts back. “Is it ‘cause he’s a high schooler now? He’s barely three years older than me!”

“No, that’s not why.” Pete tries to stay calm, it not working very well, Mikey was usually the one to calm him down.

“Is it ‘cause he’s Gerard’s best friend? It’s not that weird, loads of people get crushes on their siblings friends!” Mikey’s face starts to get red, tears forming in the corners of his eyes.

Pete shakes his head, “No! That’s not why!” He shouts.

“Oh, so it’s because he’s a boy! That’s why, it’s because I’m gay then!” Tears start to fall down Mikey’s face as he stands up, being only an inch shorter than Pete it wasn’t hard to match him. “You’re my best friend you’re not supposed to care about that kind of stuff, what happened to best friends forever, Peter?”

Mikey opens his mouth to continue arguing but Pete runs over and kisses him.

Gerard opens the door, oblivious to what’s going on with the two boys, “Hey, Mikey, do you have th- What the fuck are you doing!” Gerard shouts.

They break apart and turn to look at the door. Gerard, Frank, and Ray are all standing in the doorway, staring at them.

“See Frank, I told you he doesn’t have a crush on me.” Ray says, hitting Frank on the back of the head, gently.

Mikey and Pete jump apart and look at their feet, not meeting any of their eyes. The tears on Mikey’s face slow just a bit, but still going, he lifts his hand up to rub his eyes.

“That doesn’t answer my fucking question!” Gerard shouts, glaring at Pete.

“I don’t think they know what’s happening either, Gee.” Frank says, grabbing their arm. “Come on, let’s leave them alone.”

“No!” They yell again, “I’m not leaving Mikey alone in here!”

“Yes,” Ray says, calmly grabbing their other arm, forcibly pulling them out of the room, with Frank’s help.

The door shuts behind the three of them. Gerard’s yelling is heard, but the two boys left in the room can’t make out what’s being said.

“That’s why I got angry, Mikey,” Mikey looks up when his name is said, “because you said Ray instead of me…”

Mikey moves slowly from where he was standing, stepping towards Pete, wrapping his arms around him into a hug. Pete sniffles a bit and hugs him back.

“I do like you though,” Mikey whispers, “I always have, I just tried to push it down and stuff, because I thought if I told you, you would get mad at me and leave me.”

Pete tightens his arms around him, “I would never do that Mikey, even if I didn’t like you back, which I do, I would never ever leave you.”

Mikey just sniffles in response. The hug and constant reassuring each other went on for another ten minutes, until Mikey yawns, being drained from the emotional experience. Pete reluctantly lets go of him and walks him to the bed. He pulls the covers back and gets under them, pulling Mikey in. As they shuffle around on the bed and under the covers it creaks slightly, until they were both fast asleep, Mikey’s head under Pete’s.

 

“What the fuck guys? Why did you pull me out of there?” Gerard yells at their friends the second the door is shut.

“You were acting crazy, who knows what was really happening.” Frank takes Gerard’s other arm from Ray and holds them both down so they won’t punch anything.

“I don’t fucking care Frank! All I know is that my brother was crying while some boy forced a kiss on him! Who knows what would have happened if we didn’t walk in!”

“Gerard, calm down. It wasn’t some boy, it was Pete, and they have been friends for as long as we have. Whatever was happening, they’ll work it out.” Ray tries to calm them down.

“Well, I’m not leaving.” Gerard steps back until they hit the way, sliding down and crossing his legs, watching Mikey’s bedroom door.

“Then we aren’t leaving either.” Frank says, sitting down next to them.

The front door unlocks and the Way parents walk inside, “Gee, boys, we’re home.” Mrs. Way calls.

“I’ll tell them what’s happening.” Ray walks downstairs.

When Ray left all that’s heard was small quick steps coming from Mikey’s room, they stop quickly, and it was silent once again.

“I know,” Gerard breaks the silence with a whisper.

“Know what?” Frank asks.

“That I’m probably over reacting. It just,” They sigh, “Mikey’s my kid brother, okay. I know Pete would never intentionally hurt him. I just, I love him a lot okay, he’s my family and I don’t like to see him cry and what I saw in there looked really suspicious. If you weren’t there with me, Pete’s nose would be broken right now.”

Frank doesn’t say anything, he just scoots closer to Gerard and puts his head on their shoulder. Gerard responds by putting their own head on Franks. They stay like that for a while, calm and quiet, until they hear a bed creak.

Gerard’s shoots up, going to the door. “What was that?” They ask.

“A bed creak.”

“I know, but why did the bed creak. What are they doing?”

“Gerard, they’re in the sixth grade what are they gonna do?”

“I don’t know.”

Frank gets up and pushes Gerard to the side, he opens the door a crack and peeks inside. He sees the two boys cuddled up under the covers, sleeping. He quietly shuts the door and turns back to Gerard.

“Come on, Gee, they’re sleeping. I think they made up, we should go downstairs.” Frank tells his friend and they walk downstairs.

They walk into the kitchen to see Ray sitting at the table with Gerard’s parents.

“Well?” Mrs. Way asks as they sit in empty seats.

“When Ray left we didn’t hear much, they were pretty quiet, but Frank looked into their room and they were cuddled up on the bed, so I think they might be a couple now.” Gerard explains to their parents and Ray.

“Ha! Yes!” Mrs. Way jumps out of her seat, cheering.

“Shhh! They’re sleeping upstairs.” Frank says, worried that the loud outburst might wake the two boys upstairs.

Everyone in the room shoots Frank a confused look.

“What?” Frank looks back at them confused.

“That was a little sympathetic, don’t you think?” Ray says.

“Yeah, what happened to my punk best friend, is he getting soft?” Gerard teases their friend.

“What? No. Shut up, whenever they’re together they’re already annoying enough, now that they’re a couple it’ll be worse.” Frank blushes and looks up, avoiding the others eyes. “Can we just go downstairs now, it’s already eight o’clock and my parents want me back by ten.”

The three ninth graders get up and walks down the stairs, shutting the door behind them.

“I told you, Don.” Mrs. Way turns to her husband.

“Yeah, yeah, you won the bet, when do you want your brownies.”

 

\---

 

Pete and Mikey stay like that for the rest of the day and night, they don’t wake up until the next morning.

“Good morning.” Pete says to a slowly waking up Mikey.

“Morning,” Mikey rubs his eyes, reaching over Pete to grab his glasses off his night stand.

“Are we okay?” Pete asks, suddenly.

“What do you mean, why wouldn’t we be?” Mikey asks.

“Sorry, I meant, are we like…” Pete puts his hands together, trying to explain what he means with his fingers.

“Oh, like that. I mean if you wanna, ‘cause I..” He mumbles the rest.

“I wanna,” Pete moves his arms so he could put them around Mikey.

“Good.” Mikey nuzzles into Pete’s neck.

Having skipped dinner last night in favor of sleep, they eventually get too hungry to stay in bed. They walk downstairs and into the kitchen, holding hands of course, they see Mrs. Way already awake, making pancakes.

“Morning, Ma.” Mikey says.

“Morning, Mrs. Way.” Pete greets her, the two boys get out plates and begin to set the table for the family.

“Morning boys, have a nice sleep? You should have, fourteen hours is a long time.”

“Oops.” Mikey shrugs.

“Doesn’t matter, now go wake up your sibling, it’s ten am, time for breakfast.”

As Mikey goes downstairs to wake Gerard up, Pete prepares himself for a lecture on how he better treat Mikey right.

“Now Pete,” Mrs. Way starts.

“I’ll be good to him, I promise. I didn’t mean to make him cry yesterday, I swear I’ll be the best boyfriend ever I promise.” Pete cuts her off, rushing through his words, meaning everything he said.

She smiles softly at him, “I was just going to ask you to grab the syrup, but that’s good to know, sweetie.”

“Oh, syrup, sure.” Pete flushes red and gets up to retrieve the syrup from the cabinet

“It’s so early, why am I awake?” Gerard’s complaining is heard as he comes up the stairs, lead by Mikey.

“Because, pancakes, that’s why.” Mikey replies as they walk into the kitchen.

Mrs. Way has already sat down and began to put herself some pancakes. Mikey sits in the seat next to Pete, moving his chair closer to him so their legs are touching. Pete smiles and leans closer to Mikey.

Gerard sits in the chair across from Pete. He slams his face down on the table, carefully avoiding the plate.

“Morning, Gee.” Pete says with a smile.

All he gets as a reply is a muffled groan.

“Gerard lift your head up, it’s family time.” Mr. Way walks into the kitchen, he taps Gerard’s upper back on his way to sitting next to his wife.

“It’s not family time, Pete’s here.” Gerard replies, groggily, as they lift their head up.

Pete looks around guiltily, he does have a point, he technically isn’t family.

Mrs. Way scoffs, “Pete has been over this house for Sunday breakfast almost every week since you were eight, you’re fourteen, turning fifteen in April, he’s family enough.

Pete grins, happy she defended him. The whole time they eat his smile doesn’t leave his face. At the end of breakfast Pete and Mikey wash the dishes as Gerard cleaned off the table.

“Okay, we’re off to work, you guys need anything?” Mr. Way asks as he puts on his shoes, getting ready to leave.

“More sleep,” was the only reply he got, from Gerard.

“Yeah, yeah, see you later. Love you.”

“Love you too.” Gerard and Mikey both yell to their father as he shuts the door behind him.

“Pete, can you finish the dishes? I want to get my snow stuff from upstairs so we can play outside.” Mikey asks his boyfriend.

“Yeah sure,” he says as Mikey runs upstairs.

An awkward silence comes over Gerard and Pete when Mikey leaves. Pete keeps his eyes on the dishes. Wash. Rinse. Dry. Repeat. He keeps that pattern until Gerard breaks the silence.

“You make my brother cry like that again, I will kill you.” Gerard says as they finished wiping the table down.

Pete nods frantically, mostly scared of the tone of voice they used. Gerard flashes him an overly nice, borderline creepy smile.

“Good to know were on the same page. Other than that I like you, Pete. You're annoying sometimes, and way too hyper, and when you get to high school you're probably going to get into the “wrong” crowd and go to all those parties and drink excessively, but then again Frank is all those things and he's my best friend, so just be the guy who does all that shit but is somehow in a committed relationship like that one guy, John, Jake? Jack! Jack and his boyfriend Alex. Or don’t do any of that and stay in the group you have now, that’s what’s best for you, and Mikey.”

“You like me?” Pete looks up at Gerard, a goofy grin plastered on his face.

“Don’t read too much into that, you’ll never be good enough for my brother, no one is, but you’re close enough, I guess.”

Pete runs over and hugs them tight, not letting go until they give a half hearted attempt to hug him back.

“Pete, I found your stuff too, come on, I want to build a snowman with their head cut off!” Mikey shouts from the front door, pulling his boots over his snow pants.

“Coming!” Pete calls, letting go of Gerard and running out of the kitchen

“You better not mess this up, Pete.” Gerard whispers to himself, knowing that he probably won’t, and if anyone is with their kid brother, Gerard is glad it’s Pete.

 

\---

 

The first day of school after winter break, Pete and Mikey walk into school hand in hand. This wasn’t a shock for most people in their grade, remembering what they were like in elementary school.

What was a shock, however, was when Pete kissed Mikey in the lunchroom, resulting in Patrick shouting, “I freaking knew it!” and Ryan reluctantly sliding a ten dollar bill to his boyfriend Brendon.

“You guys bet on us?” Mikey looks wide-eyes at his friends.

“Only Ryan and Brendon.” Joe answers Mikey. “Ryan thought it would take you until high school to get together, Brendon thought otherwise, so they bet. Patrick has suspected it since the first day he met Pete in the first grade because he would not shut up about you, and everyone figured it out along the way. Well, all of us except Andy, for some reason he thought Pete was straight.”

“Well, Andy,” Pete turns to Andy, “you’re very wrong.”

“Sorry, Pete, I saw you kiss Ashlee a few years ago, I just assumed.”

Mikey tenses at the mention of the kiss that almost caused them to grow far apart. Pete notices how stiff Mikey got and puts his hand on Mikey’s knee, scooting as close as he can.

“She kissed me, and anyway it’s irrelevant.” He rests his head on Mikey’s shoulder.

“Doesn’t matter who kissed who, whatever, I was right, and all of you can suck it.” Patrick brags, smiling wide.

All of their friends were very accepting of their relationship, although it wasn’t much of a change, just quick pecks on the cheek, Mikey isn’t big on PDA. As far as them being gay, most of their friends aren’t exactly straight, so that wasn’t hard. Even if they were big on PDA the rest of their friends had time to get used to that with power couple Ryan and Brendon making out every chance they get.

 

\---

 

They stayed strong all throughout middle school, and soo enough it was near the end of eighth grade.

It was the middle of the night, the Sunday, well Monday, it was two am, before the last week of school when Mikey heard smacking at his window. Someone was throwing rocks at his window. He reluctantly crawls out of bed, walking towards the window to see who it was.

Pete’s standing outside his house, wearing sweatpants and nothing else with a hand full of small pebbles. Mikey opens the window and flashes Pete a confused look.

“Finally, I’ve been out here for like ten minutes.” Pete shouts up at him.

“Shhh, everyone’s sleeping, give me a second.” Mikey whisper shouts at him.

“Bring me a hoodie, I’m freezing my tits off out here.”

Mikey grabs the first hoodie he sees on the floor, and Blu. He goes back to the window and climbs out and down his house until his feet hit the grass, something he had been doing often but never this late.

Mikey walks over to him, handing him the hoodie, “What do you want, Pete? It’s two am.”

Pete pulls the sweater over his head and grabs Mikey’s hand, starting to walk down to the sidewalk of the street.

“Couldn’t sleep, so I came here.”

Mikey knew that wasn’t the real reason, but doesn’t mention it, figuring Pete will tell them when he’s ready, he just continues to walk around with Pete in silence. They did that for a while until they arrive at the park. Pete walks right to the sandbox, sitting down with Mikey, running his hand through the sand while Mikey rests Blu on his lap.

“Pete, why are we really here?” Mikey broke the tense silence.

Pete stays quiet for another moment before saying what’s really up, “You know how Ryan and Brendon have been together since like fourth grade?”

“Yeah, why?”

“You know how I live next door to Brendon, right?”

“Yeah?”

“Well, my bedroom faces Brendon’s, and can see inside his room through my window and..” He trails off.

“Yeah I know, I’ve been in your room before, where is this going?” Mikey asks, confused.

“Well, when I got home from your house today, and went to my room, they were already in Brendon’s but they were.. They were in the middle of a huge screaming match!” Pete manages to spit out.

“What?” Mikey shouts, not able to believe it.

“Exactly! I couldn’t believe it either, but they were yelling and Brendon was crying really hard and Ryan was too, but it was angry crying and yelling and there were was just so much yelling and screaming and crying and shouting and then Brendon started yelling too and I couldn’t even understand them, it was just a lot of loud yelling and screaming and and” Pete talks fast, breathing heavy.

Mikey moves closer to Pete and puts his arms around him. He kisses the top of the trembling boys head. Pete never liked it when people yelled, unless the yelling was directed at him it almost always made him cry.

“Then after, like, a half an hour of so much yelling, Ryan said the only thing I could understand, he said “Well, fuck you then.” and he walked out, he didn’t even shout that, he just said it so calmly, I could only hear it cause his window was open. He slammed the door behind him and Brendon collapsed on the ground, crying, and he was saying something but I couldn’t make it out, but he was definitely saying something. He wouldn’t get up, he just stayed there crying, and I didn’t know what to do, because what could I do, I wasn’t even supposed to see any of that, so I just shut my window and closed my curtains. He didn’t see me, so I tried to sleep, but I couldn’t so I checked on him, and he was still crying and stuff, he hadn’t moved at all. I left the curtains over so I could see if he moved, but he ended up falling asleep there. His head was facing me, I could see the tear tracks on his cheeks, and his eyes were puffy. It got me to think a little, they were together for like five whole years, and we’ve been together for like two and a half, so what if that happens to us, what if we just grow apart and we argue so much and-”

Mikey cuts him off with a kiss. “That’s not going to happen.” He says firmly. “I won’t let it happen, okay?”

“Okay..”

“I mean it, Pete. It’s not going to happen.”

“I love you.” Pete blurts out.

His voice cracks, he sounds broken and slightly wet. Mikey stares at him, comprehends what his boyfriend just said.

“I love you too.” Mikey tells him quietly.

Pete relaxes in his arms, pressing as close as he can to Mikey. They stay like that for a while, Pete not making any move to get up.

Mikey eventually shakes Pete and helps him up, they have school the next day, and shouldn’t be outside this late anyway.

“Come on, let’s go home.” Mikey takes his hand and walks back to Pete’s house.

“What are we going to do about Ryan and Brendon?” Pete asks as they near his house.

“I don’t know, maybe they’ll make up, or maybe they won’t, who knows. I hope they do, cause if not I might actually miss their gross make out sessions.” He tries to lighten the mood a little.

“Well, if you miss them that much, we can always do it instead.” Pete suggests, laughing at Mikey’s horrified expression on a beet red face. “I’m kidding, I’m kidding, unless.” Pete wiggles his eyebrows.

Mikey’s face is still red, but he laughs at his boyfriend’s strange gesture. They arrive at Pete’s house and Pete climbs back up the tree that connects his and Brendon’s rooms.

“Do you want to sleep over, it’s like four am, and we have to be up for school in like two and a half hours.”

“No, I’m going to go home, so Gerard doesn’t find out I sneak out sometimes, they’d flip out if they knew. How’s Brendon, can you see him?”

“Yeah, hold on.” Pete shifts and looks inside Brendon’s bedroom window, “He’s in bed. He must have gotten up because there’s tissues everywhere, like all over the floor and his bed and stuff.” He sighs and turns back to Mikey.

“Poor Brendon.” Mikey sighs.

Pete climbs through his window and looks out to Mikey, “Do you want your hoodie back?”

“Nah, keep it, I’ll see you tomorrow.” Mikey begins to walk away.

“Wait!” Pete shouts.

“Yeah?” He turns back.

“I love you.” Pete says, hesitating a bit, like he’s not sure if it’s okay to say.

Mikey grins, “I love you too.”

Pete smiles before shutting his window and going to his bed.

The entire way home, Mikey’s grin doesn’t falter once.

“What are you so happy about?” A voice startles Mikey out of his happy thoughts.

He turns around to see Frank standing outside of his own house, smoking.

“Damn, Frank, you scared the crap out of me.” Mikey lets out a breath.

“What are you doing outside at four am, Mikey?” Frank asks as he walks across the street to him.

“I could ask you the same thing.”

“I wanted a cigarette without my parents on my ass about how it’ll kill me, now spill it kid.”

“Pete came over a couple hours ago, having a small crisis, he’s better now, at his own house. Hopefully sleeping, what I’m supposed to be doing?” Mikey tells him. “Please don’t tell Gerard, they’ll kill Pete, or me, or both of us.”

“Nah, I won’t tell them, but what was the freak out about?”

“Two of our friends who are like a really cute couple had a big fight and Pete saw it happen, they didn’t see him, and he thinks they broke up because of the fight, it kind of ended badly, like really badly. Pete panicked and thought that might happen to us.”

“So did you guys kiss and say the whole ‘I loooove you’ shit?”

“Yeah, actually we did.” Mikey smiles softly.

“Oohh, that’s why you’re so happy.”

“Yeah, well, I have to sleep now. See you later. Please don’t tell Gerard about this.” Mikey begins to climb back up the side of the house.

“Wait, sneaking out or the I love you thing?” Frank asks as he walks back to his own house.

“The sneaking out, they can know about the I love you thing, they’ll find out eventually.” Mikey answers as he climbs into his window as quietly as he can.

 

\---

 

The next morning Pete and Mikey walked into school hand in hand, over to the staircase where they usually hang out with their friends before school starts. Brendon was already sitting there, red faced and puffy eyed, wearing a see through smile.

“Hey guys,” his voice sounds rough.

They frown, but don’t say anything, knowing he probably doesn’t want to talk about it.

“Hey, Bren.” Mikey says instead, making small conversation with him until Patrick, Joe, and Andy showed up.

Patrick and Andy both notice something was wrong with Brendon, but neither mention anything. Joe on the other hand, doesn’t notice anything.

“Bren, where’s Ryan?”

The second Joe mentions Ryan’s name the waterworks start. With a broken sob, Brendon gets up and runs down the staircase.

“Way to go, Joe!” Andy smacks the boy upside his head.

“Ow! What did I do?” Joe frowns.

“Pete, explain. I’m going to go find Brendon.” Mikey kisses Pete’s cheek before running down the stairs, chasing after Brendon.

Mikey walks into the applied technology wing, a place that is only used first period to broadcast the school news. Mikey walks down the hallway and into the bathrooms, figuring if Brendon would run and hide it would be in a bathroom no one would go to.

“Bren, you in here?” Mikey calls out.

The only reply he gets is the sniffles coming from the handicap stall. Mikey opens the unlocked door, seeing a crying Brendon on the floor, legs pulled to his chest. He wordlessly sits down next to him, and puts his arm around the boys shoulders in an attempt to comfort him. Brendon shifts and presses his face into Mikey’s chest, Mikey holding him close when he does.

“I’m sorry, Mikey.” He sobs into his chest.

“It’s alright, Bren. Do you want to talk about it?”

Brendon shakes his head, just wanting to be comforted.

“I’m going to text our parents to call us out for first hour.” Mikey says, knowing Brendon is in no shape to go class, he pulls out his phone and texts his mother before taking Brendon’s phone and texting his.

“Thank you.”

They stay like that for a while, Mikey just holding him for a while. Until they hear two other boys walk inside the bathroom.

“Spencer, why are we in here?” It’s Ryan.

Brendon’s head shoots up at the sound of Ryan’s voice. Ryan and his friend Spencer walked into the bathroom together. Mikey gets up and walks out of the stall.

Ryan stares at him, “What are you doing here?”

“Could ask you the same thing.” Mikey says, staring back.

“I don’t know, what am I doing here?” Ryan looks at Spencer.

“I thought that you would might want to talk about-”

“About what?” Brendon cuts him off, walking out of the stall, rubbing his eyes, trying to hide that he was crying.

“Brendon,” Ryan says softly, “I’m leaving.” Ryan’s voice cracks at the end, he pushes passed Spencer, walking with his head down to the door.

“I saw you come in here,” Spencer says to Brendon, “I thought you could talk or something.”

“Talk? Talk about what? There’s nothing to talk about, we did that yesterday, he said all he had to say.” Brendon snaps at him.

“I’m Sorry, I just-” He’s cut off again, this time by the late bell ringing. “I’m sorry, I have to go to first period.” He leaves, running down the hallway.

Brendon watches him go, breaking his collected self when he’s sure he’s gone, turning and collapsing in Mikey’s arm, mumbling apologies for no reason, and other things, Mikey couldn’t figure out.

 

\---

 

Later that week, Friday to be exact, Frank was grounded, so he found himself at the Way’s house, getting ready for a horror movie marathon sleepover rather than the annual end of school party that the newly graduated seniors throw every year.

“So, Ryan and Brendon, that’s really over, huh?” Frank asks Mikey, curling on the edge of the couch.

“Yeah, it’s pretty sad, very sad. Mess too, they’ve been inseparable since Brendon moved here, and dated way longer than Pete and I have been, it’s splitting some of our friend group too, Jon clearly sides with Ryan, and Spencer doesn’t know who to pick, Ryan’s basically his brother, but him and Brendon have always been close.”

“That’s gotta suck.”

“It really does, Pete’s pretty shaken up about it.” Mikey sighs.

“Speaking of Pete, where is he?” Gerard shouts from the kitchen, where they were making popcorn.

“Coming around in a minute, he had to do something with his mom, she needed his help.” Mikey answers.

“Are we all going to fit on this tiny ass couch?” Frank asks, looking at it, it’s small for the four boys to fit on.

“You can just sit on Gee’s lap if we don’t.” Mikey shrugs.

“I’m here, I’m queer, and I’m ready to watch some white girls die in the shower!” Pete’s shout rings through the house as he walks inside.

“Speak of the devil!” Gerard yells, as they walk into the living room, sitting on the couch.

Frank’s phone buzzes, his mom calling. He groans loudly and gets up, walking to the other room to answer.

Gerard, Mikey, and Pete all get comfortable on the couch, Mikey pressed close to Pete, Blu on his lap with no room left for Frank when he came back.

“I’m back, and my parent’s don’t fucking trust me.” Frank says bitterly as he walks back in.

He doesn’t care that there’s no room left for him on the couch, just plopping himself in Gerards lap. He shifts so his back is to the arm of the couch and his feet are in the small sliver of space between Gerard and Mikey legs. He grabs the remote, skipping through the DVD previews.

“They look cute together, don’t you think?” Pete whispers into Mikey’s ear.

Mikey nods in agreement, smiling at his brother and best friend.

“Hey, no secrets today boys,” Frank nudges Mikey’s cheek with his polka dot sock covered foot.

“Okay, I am so ready to stay up all night!” Pete throws his fist in the air.

“Doubt it, there is no way you can stay up all night.” Frank teases him.

“Yes, I can! If I don’t who’s going to protect Mikey from the scary movies?”

“Yeah, he’s the one that’s going to need protecting. Anyway, it’s nine now, so let’s see how late you’ll stay up.”

Pete was passed out by midnight, halfway through the second movie. He was cuddled up close to his boyfriend’s side. Mikey rubs his side gently, pressing his nose into Pete’s hair.

“All night, huh?” Frank snickers.

“Shhh, don’t wake him up, he’s been having trouble sleeping this past week.” Mikey whispers. “I’m going to take him upstairs, good night, love you Gee.”

“Love you too.” Gerard says to his brother, watching him walk him upstairs, carrying Pete bridal style.

“Let’s finish this then got to bed.” Gerard speaks softly into Frank’s hair.

Frank nods, stifling a yawn, now that Mikey left he didn’t have to pretend he wasn’t tired. Even though the couch was now free, Frank stayed on Gerard’s lap, wrapping his arms around their shoulders and resting his head into their neck.

Frank falls asleep in Gerard’s arms with ten minutes left in the movie. Gerard quietly shuts off the TV and picked up what they could of their mess with the popcorn and sets the bowl back into the kitchen, not wanting to leave a mess. They pick Frank up and carry him downstairs, placing him on their bed gently, climbing into bed next to him.

They wake up in an awkward situation, Frank’s arms wrapped protectively around Gerard, Gerard more than kind of liking it. They both tried to play it off platonically, and it worked, kind of.

 

\---

 

Two months into summer vacation Mikey was lying peacefully in his bedroom with his headphones in. Pete’s family decided to take a road trip back to Chicago to visit family, leaving both Mikey and Pete in major boyfriend withdrawal.

“Hey, Mikey, can I ask you something?” Gerard walks into his brother’s room.

Mikey takes his headphones out, “Yeah, what’s up?”

“Remember a couple months back, at the end of the school year, when Pete and Frank sleptover, Ray wasn’t there like he’d usually be.”

“Yeah, because he has a girlfriend, and he’s too cool for us now.” Mikey jokes, sitting up on his bed.

“Nah, It’s not that, he just doesn’t want to scare her off with Frank being five feet four inches and sixteen with multiple facial piercings, you know, his lip, nose, and ears, and with me being, well you know,” they gesture to all of themself.

“You’re fine, Frank might scare her off though, so I see where he’s coming from there, but that's not what you need to talk about, what’s up?”

“Well, okay. The main point is that I might, kind of, very much, maybe, have a tiny, large crush on Frank.”

Mikey grins, “holy shit really?”

“Shh, don't shout!” Gerard says, paranoid that someone could hear.

“Dude, there's no one home but us.”

“That's not what I meant, Frank lives across the street and your window is open, he could have heard.”

Mikey stands up, walking to his window and shutting it. “So you're serious right, because me and Pete always thought you two would be a cute couple, and he’s pan, so there won't be any sexuality crisis like there was with me.”

“The whole world knows he’s pan, Mikey.” Gerard rolls their eyes at the memory of Frank jumping on the lunchroom table, shouting it out to the school, resulting in him having a week's worth of after school detentions.

“Well, you have a chance with him, so go for it.”

“Doubt it.” Gerard mumbles. “It’s Frank, you know how he is.”

He references Frank going on a lot of dates, short term, nothing permanent, leaving as soon as there's a small hint of something becoming serious.

“Come on, Gerard.” Mikey rolls his eyes, thinking his sibling is being a little dramatic, “well, when you do realize you have a shot with him, go for it, until then, do what I did with Pete and mope around.”

 

\---

 

Months later, Pete and Mikey start high school, and were once again in the same school as Gerard, Frank, and Ray.

On the first day of school, Frank walks passes Pete and Mikey’s homeroom class, immediately backtracking and running inside to them.

“Mikey!” Frank shouts as he tackles the poor unsuspecting boy to the floor.

“Frank, what the hell?” Mikey tries to say, but he can’t because Frank’s crushing him.

“Frank, what are you doing here?” Pete walks over to the two of them.

“Peter, my boy!” Frank yells and pulls Pete into the pile on the floor.

Pete squeaks as he lands on top of them, Mikey groaning at the extra weight.

“Mr. Iero, what are you doing here?” A strict looking woman walks over to them with an angry expression on her face.

Mikey pales as she glares at them, already in trouble the first day at a new school. Pete on the other hand finds this hilarious, stifling his laughter.

“‘Sup, Krista.” Frank smirks at the teacher.

“Office. Now.”

“See you at lunch, guys.” Frank stands up, leaving the two boys on the floor, and walks out of the classroom, winking at the teacher.

“You two, get up.” She looks at them on the floor.

Mikey springs to his feet, quickly helping Pete up.

“I’d advise you not to get in with Frank and his crowd. Him and that other boy, Gerard are bad news.” The teacher tells Pete and Mikey.

“Well, too late. Gerard’s my sibling and Frank is over almost every day, and for the record, Gerard isn't a boy, they are genderfluid.” Mikey’s quick to defend his sibling and friend.

She glares at his talk back and walks out of the room again. Mikey lets out a breath and leans on Pete.

“Dude, that was great.”  The two boys turn around to see a girl sitting on a desk behind them, “Mrs. Bright is the biggest bitch I have ever met, and you, a lanky freshman, just talked back to her. Nice.”

Mikey smiles at her, ignoring the fact that she called him lanky. Pete released his hysterical laughter he was holding in, which in turn caused Mikey and the rest of the class to laugh with him.

 

\---

 

One Friday afternoon, Mikey was calmly sitting, bored out of his mind in his freshmen biology class. Gerard walks in halfway through his class, smiling sweetly at the teacher.

“Hello, Mrs. Pettia, can I borrow my brother for a moment please?” They ask politely.

“Of course, sweetheart. Go on Mikey.” She lets the boy leave and continues with the lecture on ATP.

They walk out of the room, closing the door behind them. Once it’s shut Gerard drags Mikey into the bathroom.

“Is everything okay, you don't look so good. Why did you take me out of class, is something wrong?” Mikey starts to ask, a bit panicked, thinking something was seriously wrong.

“Everything is fine, well, not really. It's not serious, I’m just freaking out man.”

“Well, what happened?”

“Frank got a girlfriend.” Gerard crisis shut him up. “Her name is Lily, and like the complete opposite of him. Like, she’s really clean cut and shit, like not even any interest in tattoos or piercing or anything. She doesn’t even have her ears pierced! Frank has had his ears pierced for years, and so many other things pierced, he has a list of tattoos he plans as getting as soon as he’s actually legal, I’m pretty sure he wants his dick pierced too!”

“Is she nice?” Mikey asks when Gerard’s little rant is finished.

“What?”

“I asked, is she nice? Gerard you’re jealous it’s obvious, he’s paying more attention to her than he is to you, that’s normal, you do have a crush on him after all. I hope you didn’t do anything stupid.”

“Um, well...” Gerard trails off.

“Gerard, what did you do?”

“I couldn’t help it okay! I didn’t mean to be rude to her, but I was, she’s just kind of annoying. Frank kind of confronted me about it and called me an ass, he was right, but we got into a fight anyway, and we’re not exactly talking to each other right now.”

“Gerard!” Mikey says angrily.

“I know, okay. I had to tell you, before you found out from someone else and yelled at me. Also you were dead in that class, so you’re welcome.”

“Whatever, I’m going back to class. I’ll see you after school, by the car.”

“Okay, love you.”

“Go back to class. I love you too.”

 

\---

 

At the end of the day Mikey is walking with Pete in the hallway. Pete was talking about how his parents are gone for the weekend and he has the house to himself.

“That senior in our homeroom, Gabe, told me to throw a party, but I was thinking you could come over instead, and we could have a sleepover and have the house to ourselves, alone.”

Mikey ignores the obvious innuendo and agrees, “Yeah, sure, that’ll be nice, but first I have to fix Gerard’s friendship first.”

“What happened now?” Pete asks

“Gerard’s an asshole.” Mikey says as he starts to walk away.

“You are what you eat- Wait, hold up!” Pete calls and runs to him again.

He stands in front of him, putting them face to face, noticing his nose is now at Mikey’s chin, and in order to look him in the eye.

“When the hell did you get taller than me?” Pete nearly shouts, very upset.

Mikey giggles at his boyfriend’s freak out, “I don’t know, around the same time I got contacts instead of glasses, so over the summer.” Mikey kisses the top of Pete’s head, smiling that he can do it so easily now, “I have to go, love you.” Mikey walks off, leaving a distressed Pete standing in the middle of the hallway.

 

“Hey, Frank!” Mikey calls, walking up to the boys locker.

“Fuck off.” Frank says, face buried in his locker

“I get you’re mad at Gee for some stupid reason, but you don’t have to hate me too.” Mikey says, leaning back on the lockers.

Frank pulls his face far enough out of his locker to see it’s Mikey, “oh, sorry, I thought you were Gerard.”

“Speaking of the dumb ass, why are you mad at them?”

“They were being mean to Lil.”

“Is that it?”

“Yeah, pretty much.” Frank starts to pull away from his locker. Mikey hits the door so it smacks Frank in the face. “Ow! What was that for?”

“Being an idiot! You’re ruining a ten year friendship over them being slightly rude to a girl you’ve known for three days. That’s dumb as hell. Be at my house today, at five. That’s not an option Frank, I know where you live and all of your little hiding places. Also I’m taller and stronger than you, I will find you." Mikey doesn’t wait for a response, just walks off to the car where Gerard was waiting.

“What took you so long?” They ask.

“Nothing, just caught up talking to some friends.” It wasn’t a lie. “What are you doing tonight?”

“Wallowing in my own misery over the loss of my best friend.”

Mikey rolls his eyes, “dramatic.”

 

“Mikey, you better have a good fucking reason for making me come ove- What the fuck?” Right when Frank let himself in, Mikey was there waiting for him.

Mikey picked the smaller boy up and threw him over his shoulder. Frank continued his protest as he’s forcibly carried down the stairs to Gerard’s room, where they were laying, face down on the floor in only boxers.

“Mikey, wh-Frank!” Gerard screams and quickly gets up, running around their room, looking, and failing, to find something to cover themselves up with.

Frank stares speechless at Gerard while Mikey drops two objects on Gerard’s desk, unnoticed. He runs up the stairs while the others were a bit preoccupied with staring and freaking out in nothing but bright, neon, pink boxers. Mikey shuts the door and pushes a chair under the handle so they can’t leave.

“Mom will be back around seven o’clock, okay? Gerard tell him the real reason you were being an ass, and remember, spit is not a viable lubricant.” Mikey grabs his bag for the sleepover, Blu off the floor, and leaves for Pete’s house.

 

Gerard is still running around, looking for something to cover themselves while Frank was left to admire the shirtless, pantsless, Gerard in front of him.

“Well?” Frank asks once Gerard finds a sweater to wear.

“Well what?” They ask, looking around for pants

“Oh would you forget your clothes, Gerard! For fucks sake do you know how many times I’ve gone skinny dipping with you? Now why were you being an ass?”

“Oh, well.” Gerard pauses before looking up at Frank. “I’m sorry man, it’s just that she’s really sweet and all but you were paying so much attention to her, the kind you would normally give to me, and some that I would wish you would give to me. I got jealous and shit okay, I just want that kind of attention from you, but you have Lily now. That’s totally cool, and I understand if you don’t want to hang out anymore and stuff, just don’t tell Ray, because he’ll make us do some weird bonding, friendship repair therapy session instead of what Mikey is doing to us. Locking us in a room where I don’t have pants on.” Gerard rambles on, while Frank starts to smile at them.

He catches on why Mikey locked them alone together in Gerard’s room while Gerard is naked. With certain items he left on his desk.

“I don’t really mind the whole no pants thing, in face I encourage it.” Frank says, heavily hinting at what he really means.

“What? Oh, well, I guess, I mean you have seen me naked, so this isn’t really anything new to you, and it’s kind of irrelevant.” Gerard says, finding reasons around the most obvious fact that Frank is trying to get in their pants.

Frank sighs, “no Gerard, that’s not what I meant. Anyway, I broke up with Lily.”

“Yeah, so like, don’t tell Ray and, wait, what?”

“I broke up with Lily. She was too sweet, like borderline creepy sweet. And you know how she was really no tattoos or piercings or anything like that, well her parents saw me kiss her, turns out that her family is like super clean cut Christian, like follow the bible almost word for word, no sex until marriage, and you’ll burn in hell if you’re gay. She was only dating me because she thought it would be some kind of rebellious act. They’re against like almost everything I am, I’m basically half gay, and the whole no sex until marriage went out the window years ago.” Frank gets off the bed and walks closer to Gerard. “She said she was sorry and started to cry and shit. I told her it’s cool and I would totally do the same thing, but if she doesn’t actually like me I’m not staying with her, and if she wanted to get a guy who looks dangerous but isn’t she should go talk to Andy Hurley, you know, Mikey and Pete’s friend. Then she hugged me and I left to come here.” He finishes speaking as he stopped in front of Gerard.

Gerard looks down at him in confusion, “what does that mean?”

Frank sighs, annoyed that Gerard isn’t picking up on the obvious hints. He stands on his toes and closes the gap between them, kissing Gerard. They stand in shock for a moment before quickly realizing what was happening and kissed back softly.

When they pull away, Frank stays where he stands, not stepping back. “Do you get what I mean now?”

“Yeah.” Gerard nods dumbly, a smile growing on his face.

“Hey, Gee?”

“Yeah?”

“Why do you have lube on your desk?”

Gerard looks over and sees the two items Mikey left for them, a half pack of condoms, and a small bottle of lube.

“Mikey must have left them, but I have an idea of what we can use them for.” Gerard smiles and pulls Frank to their bed.

 

\---

 

Mikey walks up the pathway to the Wentz house and see’s Pete’s parents has already left. He walks up to the door and lets himself in.

“Praise the lord, my parents are gone!” Mikey hears Pete’s shout from his living room.

Mikey walks in smiling when he sees Pete spread across the couch, his feet on the table and his dog on the couch next to him.

“Wow, dog on the couch, and feet on the table, rebellious.” Mikey says sarcastically, as he drops his back next to the couch.

“What can I say, I live on the edge.” Pete laughs, getting up to hug Mikey hello. “What did you do to help Gee and Frank? And just for the record I hate being shorter than you.” He presses his face into Mikey’s neck.

“Oh, I locked them in Gerard’s room with half a box and condoms and a bottle of lube, and don’t lie, you love the height difference.”

“I hate the height difference, makes it harder to kiss you. I hope that works for them, they’ve kind of become annoying the way they dance around the obvious crush, but why half a box, what happened to the rest of it.”

Mikey blushes and lets go of Pete, looking at his feet.

“No way,” Pete laughs, “Mikeyway, you didn’t!”

“Shut up, your parents are gone, okay. I put them in my backpack, I thought...” He trails off.

“Well, you thought right.” Pete smirks, Mikey’s face goes from a light shade of pink to bright red, “but first, pizza and Harry Potter.” Pete walks away to get the food from the kitchen, leaving Mikey to recollect himself and put the movies on.

 

Halfway through the second movie the boys were done eating, Pete has crawled into Mikey’s lap, holding Blu between them. He curls up, resting his head on Mikey’s chest, finding it to be a lot easier, now that he’s smaller.

“And you said you hate the size difference.” Mikey snickers.

“Shut up.”

 

\---

 

That Sunday night, Pete’s parents came home, they insisted on Mikey staying for dinner, even though he offered to walk home and leave them and their son alone.

“So, how was your weekend alone, Pete?” His mother asks her son.

“It was fine, and I wasn’t alone, I had Mikey with me.” Pete puts his hand gently on Mikey’s knee under the table.

“Yeah, I haven’t been home since friday night.” Mikey says, blushing at the suggestive look Pete’s father gives them. “No! Not like that.”

“Oh, I’m just messing with you my boy!” Mr. Wentz laughs at Mikey’s reaction. “But, I know I’m right, you better use protection.”

“Dad!” Pete gasps, now just as flustered as Mikey, face beet red.

“Oh, stop teasing them.” Mrs Wentz batted her husband’s arm, gently.

“I’m just saying, just because neither of them can get pregnant, that doesn’t mean you don’t have to take precautions.

“Oh my god.” Mikey hides his face with his hands, putting his head down on the table.

 

\---

 

Mikey waves goodbye to Pete’s parents after they drop him off, walking inside his house, closing the door behind him.

“Gerard, I’m home! Where’s mom and dad?”

Gerard walks over to their brother in the hallway, “Not here. How was Pete’s?”

“It was fun, his parents drove me home.”

“I can see that it was fun.” Gerard smirks.

“What do you mean?”

“Nice hickey, Mikey.”

“What? Shit!” Mikey runs to the mirror hanging on the wall to inspect his neck, sighing in relief. “Gerard you scared the crap out of me, they’re not noticeable.”

“I was playing around, do you really have hickeys? Let me see!” Gerard shouts, jumping on his brother’s back, trying to take his shirt off, “Give me your shirt brother!”

“No! Get off of me!” Mikey stumbles back, causing them to both fall on the floor, rolling around with Gerard.

“Gerard, is your brother hom- What is god’s name are you two doing?” Mr. Way walks in on his children wrestling on the floor.

“Give me your shirt!” Gerard shouts.

“No!”

“Gerard Arthur Way, get off your brother this instant.” His dad says firmly.

Mikey pushes his sibling off of him and gets up quickly, running behind his father. Gerard stumbles a bit before standing up straight.

“What are you two doing?” Their dad asks.

Before Mikey can even open his mouth to say a half formed excuse, Gerard shouts, “Mikey has hickeys!”

Mikey, no longer caring that their father is right next to them, doesn’t defend himself by denying the accusation, just points fingers, “Well, at least mine are well hidden! Have a nice time with Frank, Gerard?”

“What?” Their father says.

Mikey runs from behind his dad to behind Gerard. “Sorry dad!” He shouts.

“Well, I hope you two at least use protection.” He sighs, figuring this was inevitable.

“I am not having this conversation again.” Mikey picks up his back and walks up the stairs to his bedroom.

“Again?” Gerard asks with confusion. “Did you have ‘the talk’ with him? You never had it with me.”

“No, I didn’t, your mother didn’t either. And to be honest Gerard, I thought you would never get laid.”

“Dad!”

 

\---

 

The rest of the year went by very quickly. Gerard, Ray, and Frank all graduated at the end of it. Mrs. Way insisted on having one graduation party for all three of them, considering they were best friends through it all. It resulted in Ray, Frank, and Gerard’s parents planning it together for months. Graduation resulted in a lot of tears from Mrs. Way, and Pete. When Gerard came down to where his family was, after walking, Pete saw him first and hugged him right before their parents even noticed they were there. The speeches the three made at their party were very emotional. Frank claims it was because he was drunk, and that’s why he cried. He lied, was as sober as a judge.

 

Gerard went off to an art school close to home, but not close enough, so he had to live on campus. Ray decided to leave his home state all together and go to a college out of state to study psychology, his goal is to become a therapist that can help struggling teenagers. Frank stayed around, not knowing what to do with his life, taking a few classes at the local community college for a few years before realizing that his father doesn’t care if he gives up on school all together. He dropped out to train to become a tattoo artist, something much more fitting for him.

 

Pete and Mikey on the other hand, still had a couple years left of high school, they stayed behind while their older friends left them. By their senior year they had stayed best friends for nearly fourteen years and counting, they kept all their other friends they made along the way close by.

 

Ryan and Brendon never got back together, they never made up at all. They only told their two closest friends, Jon and Spencer, what really happened, the two boys swore never to tell anyone else. The only ones who really knew they had a screaming match at all are Pete, Mikey, Spencer, and Jon. Everyone else just thinks they had a falling out, nothing so serious.

 

\---

 

At the end of their senior year, only one thing was on most seniors minds. Prom. Mikey has assumed that him and Pete would just go together without a formal asking, because they’re already a couple. He didn’t see the need for some huge presentation to ask the other. Pete on the other hand, he felt that a promposal is a right of passage as a senior, and had a huge plan to ask Mikey in an extremely cliche way. The cheesy plan was scrapped entirely by the influence of Joe, and he came up with an entirely new, and better one.

 

“Hey, guys.” Mikey greets his friends as he walks up to the lunch table, sitting down next to Pete. “What’s up?”

He gets a variety of grunts and one word answers as replies from the group.

“Hey, Brendon. Have you figured out how to ask Sarah to prom yet?” Andy asks his friend, purposely bringing up the subject of prom to kick start Pete’s plan.

“No, I’m really scared. What if she says no?” Brendon starts to panic a bit at the thought of his crush rejecting him.

Sarah Orzechowski is a cute senior girl in many of the same classes as Brendon. They got paired up for an English project last semester and Brendon hasn’t been able to get his mind off of her since, talking about her every chance he gets. All of his friends were very relieved that he was finally getting over Ryan, who hasn’t talked to any of them, except Spencer, since the break up. They were especially happy because Sarah is one of the nicest girls they have ever met, perfect for Brendon.

“Speaking of prom.” Pete says, standing up.

“Pete, oh my god, what are you doing?” Mikey says in shock as his boyfriend begins to climb on top of the table.

Pete manages to stand up straight on the table and pulls off his shirt. Across his chest and stomach, written diagonally in rainbow letters, is ‘PROM?’ “Mikey Way, will you go to prom with me?”

At first Mikey got flustered and embarrassed at Pete making a very large scene for them, but it quickly dissolved into laughter as Pete took his shirt off.

“Pete, you’re so lame. I already told you yes like forever ago.” Mikey giggles.

“It’s not official until you get up on the table and kiss him.” Patrick says, walking behind him and picking him up without waiting for a response, setting him on the table.

“Kiss, kiss, kiss.” Joe chanted, well, tried too, he began to burst into a fit of laughter when catching sight of a birthmark in the shape of a t-shirt on Pete’s lower back.

“You’re an idiot.” Mikey giggles against Pete’s lips before kissing him.

“Wait I just got an idea!” Brendon shouts.

Pete and Mikey break apart and look down at him, everyone else looking as well.

“What is it?” Mikey asks, jumping down from the table.

“Pete, if you don’t mind, I need to use you, more specifically, your chest. Patrick, may I please use your guitar?” He says excitedly.

“Yeah, sure, buddy. What for?” Patrick asks, handing him the instrument.

Pete steps down from the table, next to Brendon, “Sure, you can, but why?”

“I have an idea of how I’m going to ask Sarah! I need to do it now before I chicken out.” Brendon takes the guitar and Pete’s arm, running out of the cafeteria to Sarah’s calculus class.

 

\---

 

Prom night eventually came and the two boys were forced into many, many, many pictures by their family. The dance on the other hand was great, the two thoroughly enjoyed themselves, dancing together as much as they could, dragging all their friends with them. It was wonderful until somebody spiked the punch and Andy, who promised to never drink, almost did, resulting in an accidentally tipsy Joe, knocking the cup out of his hands, shouting loudly that he can’t drink that.

 

Pete and Mikey used that as a diversion, sneaking away from their friends, they’d go back for an after party at Spencer’s house.They walked out of the building to Pete’s car and made their way to the park, together.

 

“So, prom.” Pete broke the comfortable silence as they arrived, walking straight to the sandbox.

“Yeah, prom. It was fun.” He says, sitting down, running his hands through the loose sand.

“Nights not over, we still have the after party, it’ll be even better than the dance.” Pete smiles.

Mikey gives him one back, knowing with their friends, he’s definitely right.

“Ryan wasn’t there tonight.” Pete tells Mikey what was bothering him for most of the night.

“Yeah, I noticed. I think Brendon was trying to look for him, but gave up and left all of his attention for Sarah.”

“He was in Sarah’s class when we went in to ask her. He walked out of the other door, nobody noticed except me, they were all distracted by Brendon and Sarah.” Pete says softly, trying to keep a smile on his face.

Mikey reaches over and puts his hand over Pete’s. “Hey, Pete.” Pete looks up at him. “We made it past five years. Look alive sunshine, we beat them, just like I said we would.”

“Yeah,” Pete’s smile grows into a real one, “yeah, we did. We made it. I was worried for nothing.”

“Not for nothing, but it doesn’t matter now.”

Fourteen, going on fifteen years of friendship, almost seven years of a relationship, the two boys made it through elementary school, with shy new kids, horrible bullies, and a random girl interference. They went through middle school with small crises with Ray, to the awful Ryan and Brendon break up. Then finally through high school, with getting Gerard and Frank together, to parents knowing much more than the boys would like them to, to now, prom. They never left each other’s side, never wanted to. Stuck together like glue through thick and thin, forever together.

“Hey, Pete.” Mikey says.

Pete looks up at his boyfriend, smiling when he sees him holding a small blue stuffed bunny.

“Do you want to build a sandcastle with me?”

**Author's Note:**

> Please comment, it means a lot to me! You can contact me at [my tumblr sits-with-cats](http://sits-with-cats.tumblr.com/) prompts are open (No songfics please.)


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